Re: The "Presentation" Layer

Nathan Andelin wrote:

Microsoft invested a ton in creating UI widgets that render as HTML on the server. Same with vendors of JSF tooling. Now we're seeing a shift to JavaScript frameworks that render themselves as DOM objects. No HTML is generated.

This is indeed a fundamental shift. Add to that the ability to ask for data in small pieces a la AJAX, and what you have is Rich Client. It's effectively a fat client framework in the browser. The entire premise behind Web 2.0 is to remove the server-side controller and replace it with services that are invoked by the client.

It is this shift more than anything which will sound the death knell for the architecture Aaron proposes, where the server program dictates the screens.

Eventually (sooner rather than later), servers will know nothing about UI whatsoever, and will become pure message-based services. This is the SOA model, and is a rational evolution (no pun intended) of the client/server design.

Does that mean that JSF (and other page-at-a-time server-side frameworks) are dead? Not yet. But they are at a disadvantage for a lot of things.

Joe